1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a display control apparatus that displays an array of still image data, moving image data, additional information, thumbnails, and the like, and a method for the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, a storage function has been provided in not only PCs and dedicated storage apparatuses but also in cameras and the like for capturing image data, and in devices that store broadcast content and the like, such as a disk recorder. There are also display apparatuses for displaying a list of data (content) that is stored in such devices. An example of this type of display apparatus is an apparatus that displays a list of all data by text such as data names. Also, in recent years, there have been list displays that include the explicit display of images or videos that show an overview of data, such as thumbnails of data or a reproduced portion of a characteristic part of data. In such a list display, data can be displayed in various orders, such as date or filename order. This display method shows data in a way that enables an overview of the data to be easily understood, and is also effective when a user is searching for a desired piece of data.
In this way, there have been proposals of various user interfaces for displaying an array of still image data, moving image data, additional information, thumbnails, and the like, and for enabling searching for a desired piece of data by switching the display of data in accordance with a user operation. There have also been proposals to facilitate finding data by organizing and grouping data, as well as proposals to display a group of data by a single icon or the like in such cases. In this case, the icon for the data group has often been generated from an image composed of a representative piece of data in the data group, or from an image composed of part or all of the data in the data group. An icon can be generated with use of all of the data in a group by, for example, reducing the thumbnails of data in the group and generating an icon that displays all the reduced thumbnails, or generating an icon in which thumbnails are overlaid.
In order to facilitate finding data in a displayed list of data, there have also been proposals to add various types of metadata to the data, determine an order based on the metadata, and sort the data based on the determined order. For example, data has been sorted in date order, or in order of the Japanese syllabary, alphabetical order, and the like with respect to metadata. Furthermore, there have been innovations for further facilitating finding data by hierarchically managing such metadata. For example, dates are divided into year, month, and day levels and grouped, and by switching the display to higher or lower levels, the user can select a desired location from his or her memory and find data.
There has also been a proposal for creating a group of data, displaying a representative thumbnail for the group, and furthermore dynamically changing the level of detail of the group in accordance with a user operation, thereby enabling finding desired data (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2006-65368).
There has also been a proposal to group the structure of a Web page in a hierarchical structure, and enable browsing data while changing the level of detail in the display by changing the display hierarchy in accordance with a user operation (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2007-133761).
Also, when users attempt to find desired content while browsing various content, there is demand for the ability to move among pieces of the content and arrive at the desired content as fast as possible. In such visual searching of content in which desired content is searched for while browsing various pieces of content by scrolling, the ability to scroll at high speed is very important.
There has also been an increase in the need to be able to browse content by displaying the content on a TV or the like, and there is demand for the ability to perform operations with a remote controller that only has arrow keys or a limited number of keys, instead of an operation unit that enables freely performing operations, such as a keyboard or a mouse. Accordingly, when browsing by scrolling through pieces of content, it is becoming very important to be able to easily perform operations with a small number of keys.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2004-297176 discloses managing data in a hierarchical structure of year/month/day, displaying a representative image for each level, and sequentially switching to a lower level each time a representative image is selected. In Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2004-297176, an arbitrary image is selected from among images in a group and displayed as the representative image, and the displayed image is sequentially switched as time elapses. Also, the size of the group is shown by displaying the number of images in the group.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. H07-225765 discloses that for document data managed in a hierarchical structure, the inclusion relation between levels is displayed, and structure units are expressed according to the size of lower-level groups. Also, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2006-285471 discloses showing, with use of an indicator, which part of the whole is being displayed at a display target position.